The team put a patrol out this afternoon to provide safety cover for the thousands of visitors in Swanage for the visit of the Red Arrows, but moments before the display started they team was tasked by the UK Coastguard control room.
Two separate 999 calls had been made when a young lad on a sit-on kayak was suddenly taken by the wind from the shallows below the Grand Hotel northeastwards towards Ballard. The boy's father tried to swim after the kayak but he was no match for it and it also evaded a group of long distance swimmers training in the bay. The patrol alerted the Dorset Police Rib which was afloat in the bay, but before it had time to reach the boy, a motor boat at anchor for the display slipped its mooring in pursuit and soon had the boy aboard and the kayak under tow back to the safety of the beach. The boy's mother had actually been holding the kayak and had just let go to turn it round when it disappeared from her reach. She was shocked how quickly the situation had developed and how the boy came to be several hundred metres adrift after just a couple of minutes.
Whislt keeping watch on the kayak through binoculars the team also witnessed an individual on the rocks at the base of Ballard Point. Swanage NCI also saw the same and although the two units later liaised with the Ops Room, the individual could not be seen again and was assumed to have departed by one of several boats in the area.
So for the chaps that missed the Red Arrows, here's what you missed.
(All photos courtesy of Jayden Capper)
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